Digital Manufacturing Challenges Education—SmartLab Concept as a Concrete Example in Tackling These Challenges

Abstract

Digitalization is boosting the manufacturing industry’s shift to smart manufacturing systems, which will efficiently utilize the potential of new technologies for their business outcomes and value. However, the literature shows that manufacturing companies have implemented very little digital technology due to a lack of the required knowledge and competences. Increasingly, interconnected, digitalized, and complex processes lead to new skill requirements in companies and thereafter also of their workforce’s training needs to respond to the smart manufacturing’s new great expectations. The article provides concrete examples of tackling challenges in education arising from digital manufacturing. The case study introduced in this article concerns the additive manufacturing (AM) method, which is expected to give rise to significant changes in various industrial fields, including digital manufacturing. Advances in digital manufacturing requires skilled professionals who are aware of the possibilities and potential of the latest technology. Education therefore needs to be developed. This article points out that the built learning and development environment, SmartLab, supports multidisciplinary approaches and close collaboration between several stakeholders like companies, engineering education courses, students, and RDI actors. The SmartLab concept is thus also expected to provide a remarkable competitive advantage for business in the region.